Autumn Heart
by SilverReplay
Summary: "Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting, and autumn a mosaic of them all."—Stanley Horowitz [] A possible backstory for Su Muqiu and Su Mucheng as well as Ye Xiu, somewhat.


**Warning:** Major Character Death

 **Category:** Gen

 **Fandoms:** 全职高手 | The King's Avatar (Cartoon) [] 全职高手 - 蝴蝶蓝 | Quánzhí Gāoshǒu - Húdié Lán

 **Relationships:** Sū Mùqiū & Yè Xiū [] Sū Mùchéng & Yè Xiū [] Sū Mùqiū & Sū Mùchéng

 **Characters:** Sū Mùqiū [] Sū Mùchéng [] Yè Xiū [] Mama Sū

 **Additional Tags:**

[Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms] [SMQ did not take his mother's death well] [slightly dark?] [like...SMQ is kinda manipulative in this] [kinda unhealthy codependency] [idk - Freeform] [SMQ still dies] [thus the angst] [except I added even more angst] [I blame Fade] [or Alsheon] [however you know her by] [I have no real medical knowledge] [aka any medical stuff is looked up and writer logic lmao] [I got really poetic in this again] [more imagery/analogies]

* * *

 **Notes:**

Submitted this to **The King's Avatar** Server's story contest (it placed second, somehow)  
I mean, I wrote this in 1.5-2 hours, at 1am, to submit it an hour before the deadline for the contest lol  
Fade~ I'll be waiting for an update from you in response to this! (plus another one in response to Joui's update)  
No beta this time, haha; this is purely me

* * *

He peers down over the railing, taking in those light wisps of hair just as faint in color as his. The scrunched up face looks more like that ugly pink-brown vegetable rock thingy that he hates eating.

"She's so small," Su Muqiu remarks in awe, his small hand reaching down to touch her hand. That small fist uncurls immediately and latches onto his finger, stubby fingers grasping him in a surprisingly strong grip. Or well, strong in cuteness at least, as he doesn't want to remove his hand from her grip even if he easily can with just a slight flick of his wrist.

"You'll be a perfect big brother, right, Qiu'er?"

"Mn, I will, momma. What's her name?" Su Muqiu shifts his gaze away from his adorable, newborn sister. His young mind doesn't register the listlessness in his young mother's gaze or the weariness that suddenly settles over her. He just knows that his momma is tired now after giving him a new baby sister.

"Mucheng. She'll make your life far brighter than you can ever imagine," his momma murmurs. His momma doesn't talk for a while, and only the sound of the clock ticking remains. Su Muqiu just focuses on the baby, whose adorableness continues to captivate him further. His momma suddenly speaks up, causing him to look away from Su Mucheng again. "Qiu'er, can you go get the doctor? Momma needs some rest."

"Okies." Su Muqiu nods and scampers off, his tiny feet pattering against the floor. He doesn't see the look that crosses his momma's face.

She looks down at her newborn daughter and bends down just enough to press a kiss to the infant's forehead. "I'm sorry I can't see you grow up."

When Su Muqiu returns, doctor in tow, it's to a swarm of nurses surrounding his momma's hospital bed. He can't remember exactly what happens, but the one clear moment he does recall is a pair of then murky blue eyes opening up and capturing his own ordinary brown eyes.

Maybe that was the moment when she stole his heart.

* * *

He remembers having a 'father,' in the loosest sense of the word possible, but just barely—just a shadowy back walking farther and farther away, away from their small family of two. His momma was crying, ugly tears streaming down her face. Su Muqiu was patting a napkin at his momma's cheeks, being careful not to smudge the dark black gunk around her eyes all over. He didn't know why his papa was leaving back then, but he did know that his papa was no longer his papa.

Because...his momma wasn't his papa's heart, as she once told him.

'Loving someone,' his momma once said, 'is having them be your heart.' She had brought his hand up to his chest, to where he could feel a 'thump-thump' beat beneath his hand. 'See this? This is your heart, but you have another one, one you don't have at first. In this world, we each have someone who is our heart, the one that makes this heart in your chest beat faster. They're the ones who become our real heart, but you have to find them first. Your papa, he's my heart. I love him, you see? My heart beats for him, so that makes him my heart. One day, you'll find your heart, and you'll love them more than I love your papa.'

'Really?' Su Muqiu had asked then.

His momma had nodded and stated seriously, 'Really.'

He realizes that Su Mucheng is his heart when her first word was 'bwo-er.'

He realizes later that his momma died of a broken heart when he is nearly separated from Su Mucheng at the orphanage. If she felt the same as he felt when he believed he was about to lose Su Mucheng, then he understands. There are so many prospective parents who would love to take in a newborn as cute as she is, but there are none who want a pair of siblings with a three year age gap in between. If she had actually been taken from him…

He refuses to consider it and instead raises hell to prevent any adults from ever taking his Su Mucheng away.

* * *

He can't let this happen. He refuses to let it happen. He tugs at Su Mucheng's hand and shushes her sleepy murmurs of 'Brother?'

Stealing away in the middle of the night, they leave the orphanage with just a rucksack between them filled. He had heard the adults that morning, talking about how the orphanage had to close down. The kids would be separated by age, which meant they might succeed in taking his Su Mucheng away.

No. Even if the world ends, he still refuses to let Su Mucheng be separated from him. That will only happen over his dead body.

When the chilly air of winter blasts them in the face, Su Muqiu instantly digs for their sole scarf and wraps it heavily around Su Mucheng. He ignores his own trembling, numb hands and searches for that abandoned building he found a couple weeks ago. No one lives there, but the lights and water still work.

It'll be enough for now.

* * *

"Brother?" Su Mucheng whispers, shaking Su Muqiu's shoulder. Her light brown hair falls to her shoulders now. A closer look will reveal roughly cut ends, some already splitting in half due to the blunt edge taken to them. Su Muqiu's hair, even more uneven and disheveled, is in an even worse state, but neither of them care much for their appearances. As long as they look nice enough to pass inspection, they couldn't care less.

Su Mucheng frowns at the lack of response and plucks the warmed cloth from his forehead. She dips it into a bowl of cool water and wrings it dry before replacing it onto her older brother's forehead.

The slight change in temperature wakes up Su Muqiu enough from his daze for him to respond with a slurred, "Lil' sis?"

"Ah, you're awake!" Su Mucheng turns away immediately to grab the prepared glass of water. "Drink! You need more fluid in your body."

Su Muqiu struggles into an upright position and ultimately fails. He can only move his head up just enough to reach the straw and sip lightly, the water soothing his parched throat immensely. After just a few mouthfuls, however, he collapses back onto the bed, his body drained of all energy. "Sis," he murmurs. "Qiu...where?" That guy can't have possibly left his Su Mucheng to take care of his sick self all alone, right?

"Brother Ye?" Su Mucheng frowns slightly. "Don't worry, big brother. He went to see if he can win enough from gambling so we can afford medicine. We don't have enough to spare, but you're not getting better."

Su Muqiu is startled. "N–no," he begins, furtively shaking his head, "not, not worth." Just those few words cause his head to spin, colors swirling into a muddy mess before him. Concerned brown eyes look down at him, and a soft voice echo within his ears...but he can't process any of that.

He blacks out then and wakes up to his nose being pinched and a hand rubbing at his throat, forcing foul medicine into his body.

* * *

It's a joking remark, but Ye Xiu commits it to heart anyways.

"Hey, Little Qiu," Su Muqiu called out one day as they were walking back from a convenience store.

"Hmm?" Ye Xiu just hummed in response, his eyes lidded and his head tilted back to observe the fluffy white clouds floating in the sky.

He spotted Su Muqiu grinning from the corner of his eye and nearly stumbled off the sidewalk at the sudden shove at his shoulder.

"Listen, alright? If anything happens to me, take care of Mucheng for me." The fact that Su Mucheng was referred to simply by her first name instantly caught Ye Xiu's attention.

"What?" Ye Xiu stared at the slightly older teen, his own light brown eyes wide in shock. "What are you talking about?"

"Ah, don't worry about it. Just promise me that you'll take care of her." Su Muqiu threw his arm over Ye Xiu's shoulder then. "Got it?"

"Yea, sure. Why wouldn't I?" Ye Xiu frowned. "What brought this up?"

"Nothing, nothing. Come on, let's hurry before the ice cream melts." With a bag of groceries each, the two started walking toward their shared apartment faster. They had splurged for once and bought a carton of ice cream in celebration of Su Mucheng's birthday.

Ye Xiu only learnt of the true meaning of this question a year later. That...he and Su Mucheng couldn't believe that Su Muqiu had hidden this from them.

* * *

"I'm sorry to inform you that your brother, Su Muqiu, has passed away."

Su Mucheng collapses onto the floor of the hospital. Ye Xiu himself just stands there stunned in disbelief.

"I...I thought he was only clipped by the car?" Ye Xiu asks, his tone practically demanding an explanation. "How can he just die from that?"

The doctor looks down at the two teens apologetically. "It's not that. The hit-and-run caused him to crack his head slightly against the pavement when he fell. He was luckily rushed to the hospital immediately by a bystander, but by then, his brain had begun hemorrhaging. We thought he would survive, as it was only minor…"

"But?" Su Mucheng looks up with a tear-stained face, her hands white from how tightly she's clenching them. "What happened? Why did my brother die?"

"Did you know your brother had gliomas? A grade III anaplastic astrocytomas, to be exact." The doctor glances down at his clipboard for confirmation. "He was diagnosed for it a year ago, when he checked in at a free clinic, but did not have a follow-up appointment made."

"What?" Ye Xiu finally reacts. "He had brain cancer?"

The doctor nods solemnly. "Yes. The hemorrhaging aggravated it beyond recovery and instigated a seizure. There was nothing we could do. With the stage of his brain tumor, he would have survived maybe two to three more years at most before his body turned in on itself. Radiation and chemotherapy had a fairly low chance of working, since he didn't have it treated upon first diagnosis."

"I...no...big brother," Su Mucheng whispers. She drops her head into her hands and sobs her heart out. Why her big brother? Why her pillar of support? Why her heart?

Ye Xiu kneels down and wraps his arms around her, silent. He doesn't know what to say. Nothing he says will fix this. There's nothing he can do. Nothing.

* * *

Su Muqiu glanced down at the results. Gliomas. The paper crinkled in his hands as he glared down heatedly at the typed letters. Moments passed. When he heard the sound of the door open, he scrunched the papers up into a ball and threw it into the bottom drawer of their scruffed up desk.

It didn't matter. He refused to get treatment; they couldn't afford it. Flashing a smile at his sister as she returned home with Ye Qiu, he acted as if nothing changed.

He planned to make the most of what little time he had left, to leave Su Mucheng with the best memories possible.

He also began making plans to tie Ye Qiu closer to Su Mucheng, so that Ye Qiu would take care of his heart when he was gone.

Was this what his mother felt, when his bastard of a sperm donor left them? That everything would be okay, as long as their precious ones were safe and cared for?

He thought so.

* * *

He can hear the rapid beeping of the hospital machinery, but it feels as if he is hearing them underwater. It's all distorted, with random sounds of metal striking and colliding like a hammer to a forge. His mind is all fuzzy, and the lights make his eyes shut instantly.

There are voices, but the words fade just as he focuses a little more on them.

He can feel himself drifting away, and for some reason, he knows that he can't...he can't…

His heart—

He shouldn't…

Shouldn't what?

Everything fades to nothingness.


End file.
